


Strings Attached

by StarrSensei



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:35:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28568604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarrSensei/pseuds/StarrSensei
Summary: Returning home from almost a year in Snow, Sakura is confronted with a comatose sensei, and a stressed out shishou. Things are brewing outside of Konoha, and she can't shake the feeling that none of it will be good for her. That feeling intensifies when she comes home to a chakra signature she thought long gone. How will she kill him the second time? Does she want to? Saso/Saku
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Sasori
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

_Running through Fire country is the only time I feel at peace,_ she thought, smirking at the beautiful greenery surrounding her. _The best part of a mission is the first night home._

_Home_

Naruto, Kakashi, Tsunade-shishou. 

_It's been months since I’ve had any contact with them, even longer since I’ve have seen the boys._

Wasting messenger effort on a simple guard mission wasn’t worth it to her, though she missed them dearly. Naruto and Kakashi had been out of the village for some time before she left, and the news of her takedown of those after the princess was the last time she sent word to her master. Shaking herself from her thoughts, she pulsed her chakra out wider, keeping alert even this close to home. Too many times has she given into that slight relaxation of being so close to Konoha, only to encounter missing or foreign nin, ready to give a hard time. 

She snorted, thinking, _I almost wish someone would have tried to take me on this time. After almost a year of being in Snow, I’d most likely kill the person standing in my way of those gates._ If anyone were around to see her face, they’d see the dark smile playing on the edges of her lips, _It’s been such a long time since I’ve had any real action. Palaces are no place for ANBU, even if the threat was credible enough for me._ Flashes of taking down a group of assassins danced behind her eyelids, as the trees whipped past her vision. Assisting Snow’s princess with their small hospital and even smaller clinic afterwards was a nice reprieve, a different kind of bloodshed, but she hadn’t spent the past few years training, hardening her body and sharpening her skills for nothing. 

_Maybe I can talk Neji-san into a spar once I’ve reported in._ Two days of solid running was nothing for her anymore, not after training with the Green Duo. Speaking of their team, she reminded herself not for the first time to visit Tenten again, having lost her tanto and quite a few kunai along the way to Snow, dealing with nukenin. Smiling wryly as she finally, finally reached the high gates of Leaf, she mused that maybe putting herself in the Bingo Books for taking down S-class criminals and becoming Black Ops in her own right, wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Izumo and Kotetsu waved at her, and she saw no need to rush past. 

“Ohayo!” she called, sauntering up to them. 

“Hello Sakura-chan,” Kotetsu smiled, “How was your mission?” 

“Nothing too unusual Kotetsu-san. I was actually pretty bored by the end of things. But I won’t complain too much, you always wish for the boredom when things are intense, after all.” Winking, she looked between the two of them. “How has Konoha been while I’ve been gone? It wasn’t a short trip, you know.”

Nodding, Izumo chimed in, “It’s been pretty quiet around here Sakura-chan, the only action we’ve seen is guarding Hokage-sama when those Suna delegates were visiting. I know Temari-san missed you.”  
Sakura nodded slightly, silently adding yet another reminder to her growing to-do list. 

“I’ll have to write to her and catch up a little. Although I’m sure with the way things are going between her and Shika-kun, I might see her pretty soon!” she laughed. “I’m glad it was quiet, everything I heard on the other side was that way too. I’m pegged for a short report this time.” Suddenly subdued, she added to herself, _Almost makes me a little suspicious. Like when you know you’re due for rain, but the sky is blue and clear._

Giving a small smile at the two men she was about to leave when she noticed Kotetsu. He tensed up slightly, and looked down. 

“Kotetsu?” she asked, confused.

“Naruto and Kakashi are back, Sakura.” He started. “They came back a few months ago. Kakashi…he’s in the hospital.” 

He couldn’t meet her eye. For Konoha’s elite, any hospital stay was nothing to scoff at. But months? That could mean the end of a life. Or worse for a shinobi, the end of a career. It takes something special to carry on in retirement, but Kakashi….Kakashi was made for the battle. Ever the bachelor, determined to be the last of his line… _that battle must have been more than just serious to put him out of commission for more than a week._

Looking Kotetsu in the eye, she stilled for a brief moment, before disappearing from sight; the only sign she had been happily chatting just a moment before, a single cherry blossom floating towards the ground.

Sharing a meaningful look, the two friends sat themselves back in the guard stand, each lost in their own thoughts of their comrades. Hoping that now that Sakura was back in the village, their beloved taichou could start to recover, and Konoha’s number one unpredictable ninja could smile again. Everything is better when Sakura is home. No matter how dire. She wasn’t loved without merit. She worked hard to protect those precious to her, and lucky for those in Konoha, that was everyone that belonged to the village. Belonged to her. Hers to protect, hers to heal, hers to care for in any way they needed her. 

Shaking his head, Kotetsu sighed. “If anyone can wake him up, she can.”

Itsumo stared through the open gates, thinking about when Naruto came screeching through, carrying a limp and bloody Kakashi. Shuddering slightly at the foreboding feeling that crept up his spine, he turned to his partner. 

"I believe in her.”


	2. Chapter 2

Popping into the hospital inconspicuously is something Sakura mastered long ago, but it didn’t mean her guard was down as she heard the bustling outside Kakashi’s room. She didn’t want to run into anyone; the nurses who worked under her, her shishou, or perhaps worst of all, Naruto. She just wasn’t ready to face him, not until she knew all she could about Kakashi’s condition. Knowing Tsunade would give her the mission details later put her tactical mind at ease, but the part of her that loved her friends, her family, the only family she had left to claim, was pacing back and forth within her.

The anxiety wouldn’t lessen at all until she had her chakra through his system, so she crept to his bedside slowly; heart tearing slightly as she watched his chest rise and fall, shallow and shaky. Kotetsu said months ago. How many? Two? More? She never should have stopped using the messenger. Once the medics in Snow had the gist of her basic techniques for survival and revival, she should have left.

_Dammit! I fucking knew it. I never should have let myself let up, not even for a goddamn day._ What good was she if she was countries away? What good would her training do her loved ones if she was out repairing broken arms and teaching civilian doctors the importance of herbs and basic poultices?

Shaking herself to rid the negative thoughts threatening to consume her, she schooled her features back into the blank slate she started with and raised her hands to his chest. A couple years before, she had gracefully surpassed her shishou, with a chakra control of just under 99%. Her hands barely glowed anymore; she was able to use the barest amounts in almost every situation. Threading and flowing through Kakashi’s organs, circulatory system, and brain, she sighed. She didn’t even need to sneak his file from the head nurse. All his injuries, almost the battle itself was laid out before her mind’s eye.

Broken ribs, shattered in some places, cracked sternum, _he’s lucky he survived that one._ One fragment and it’s a body brought back instead of a person. Broken clavicle, humerus, almost every metacarpal, skull cracked in three different places, shattered eardrums, snapped femur, shattered tibia, severed arteries, numerous gashes and.. _tearing_? He was **_torn_**? Just what was he up against this time? So strong that both he and Naruto couldn’t have prevented these injuries? If he and Naruto were together on that mission, what happened to him?

_God Kakashi…I’m surprised your heart is even still beating_ , weakly as it is. She let out a great sigh as she flowed her chakra across his neurons, watching them light up and fire behind his eyelids.

No brain damage. She smirked, _only you Kakashi, can take 3 hits to the skull and still be able to slouch around and read porn_. Her smirk faded as she sobered, thinking that, no, he wasn’t doing those things. Creeping through his frontal lobe, she noted his neurons firing, his pupils responding. All the injuries she mentally catalogued; healed. Blood transfused, antibodies fought all lingering infection, even his superficial scrapes had been duly seen to. _He really has been here a while_ , she mused.

_So why, why aren’t you waking up Kakashi? We aren’t through with you yet, we need you to wake up_.

“We need you Kakashi. Where are you hiding in there?” she murmured, pushing her chakra deeper into his brain, combing over it on a nearly cellular level. _Something_ was there, pulsing out from behind his optical nerve, almost…leaking out from the sharingan he was gifted. It felt sinister, harsh and unyielding. Backing off for the moment, Sakura finished her search of his brain realizing that the center for his dreams was being stimulated by the dangerous chakra that had been implanted into his sharingan.

What kind of nightmare has he been subjected to? That must be the goal of whatever jutsu or seal was holding this chakra, keeping his brain and subconscious captive, and more than likely, judging by the killing intent she could sense, trapped in an endless nightmare. She was no expert at fuinjutsu, and the greatest seal master she knew of died in Rain at the hands of a former student. As a matter of fact, the only two in Konoha that were even remotely efficient in research and application of fuinjutsu were Kakashi himself, and Yamato-taichou.

If this really is the cause of his coma, has he been under the same nightmarish genjutsu the whole time? For months? _Just why, WHY have they let this go on so long? **Why** did no one send for me?_ There are fuinjutsu masters at the various temples in Fire and Wind country, did Tsunade reach out to any of them?

Spiraling was getting her nowhere, so she forced the water in her eyes to dry, removing her hands from Kakashi’s silver mane and chest. Sakura lowered herself into the chair next to his bed, staring towards the covered window. Wondering how it all went sideways wasn’t worth anything, she mused. _I guess its finally time to visit Shishou. Hopefully, I won’t run into Naruto before then, he always pulls my emotions back to the surface and I just can’t afford that right now._

_I can’t afford to be **weak** again. _


	3. Chapter 3

Shunshining into the Hokage Tower was easy when every ANBU stationed there was a lower rank. Even if they noticed Sakura’s signature, which was extremely unlikely, it wouldn’t raise a brow. Before opening the door, she flared her chakra, letting her shishou know she was there, as well as scanning for any familiar signatures _. Neji, Raidou, and Genma on patrol today_ , she mused. _Naruto must either be on a low rank or holed up in that hazmat hazard he calls an apartment_. Chuckling to herself, she opened the door, only to find her shishou half asleep on her desk. Approaching the Godaime and coughing slightly, Sakura hid a smile behind her mask.

Grumbling, the Godaime Hokage came to, raising her head only to have to brush off papers that had stuck there. Something about zoning, Sakura noticed. _No wonder she fell asleep_ , _can’t say I blame her_. Tsunade blinked, taking in her apprentice standing there, ANBU attire unwrinkled and for all the world, looking as if she never left. Breathing deeply, Tsunade smirked, coming as close to a smile as she would allow after being woken up with a slight hangover.

“Ah, Sakura. It’s been a long time.”

Removing her mask, Sakura smiled brightly, breathing, “Shishou.”

After a moment of looking her over, checking to make sure she was as unbothered as she looked. Enhancing the chakra in her eyes just to put her mind at ease, Tsunade let out a huff. “You really didn’t run into any real trouble, now, did you?” Rolling her eyes she added, “Leave it to you to look like you just came from home and not three countries over. Have you rested or did you come straight to report?”

Smile turning wry, Sakura looked into Tsunade’s eyes and said, “I just came from seeing Kakashi.”

It was as if all happiness was sucked out of the room by an invisible force. Eyes tightened, their faces drew blank as if to shield their owners of the pain of the conversation to come. “I see. So you know as much as I could tell you, medically anyway.” Sakura inclined her head. Tsunade sighed, she honestly did not want to go through this again. Kakashi was a thorn in her side half the time, but he was an elite shinobi, and a dear friend.

“Sakura…it was touch and go for a while when they came back. Naruto came screaming through the gates with him, no one knew what was going on. Shizune and I got to him as soon as we were notified, but even then, he had lost so much blood and that chakra…it had almost engulfed his entire brain. I managed to pour enough of myself into him to force almost half of it back, but every day one of us has to go in to see him and push it back. I have yet to be able to shrink it further than that. I honestly don’t understand any of it. I don’t understand why its eating away at his chakra, I _don’t_ understand how it manipulates itself into a genjutsu that apparently can’t be broken even by a master genjutsu specialist with a _god damn sharingan_ , and I don’t understand how the _fuck_ the mission went sideways enough for that level of pure torture to be inflicted on him like that. And from what we’ve been able to get from Naruto, he went through the same. The only people out there who we knew of that were that vindictive and messy are the now defunct Akatsuki, and we all know if they had Naruto, he’d be minus the Kyuubi when he came back; not mostly healed and able to transport himself and Kakashi.”

Sakura nodded along, understanding exactly what her master was feeling. It was a very rare thing to have developed something the Sannin couldn’t fix, or at the very least understand. Even if she couldn’t save someone, she wouldn’t stop unless she knew everything there was to know from a condition or poison. It just wasn’t in a medic nin’s nature to give up prematurely.

“The mission was only A-rank Sakura. A. It was a simple retrieval mission. A spy infiltrated the mind of one of our lower ranking guard staff, in Records. Morning shift chunin.” Shrugging, she continued, “With the elite shinobi around the tower and inside guarding this seat, we’ve never felt that position was a threat. Not just in my regime; ever. There’s plenty of chunin staff inside this tower, all nowhere near trained to go up against a mind infiltration like Sunji faced.” Sakura grimaced, partly at the ghost pain of training against mind jutsu and partly because she knew Sunji from her time as a mere apprentice. Before she surpassed him in rank, they would often cross in the downstairs meeting hall, sharing a hello.

She almost didn’t want to ask, “Shishou, is Shunji…alive?”

Closing her eyes briefly, Tsunade answered quietly, “No. He had to be put down. The madness the nukenin implanted in him…it would never have left him. Sunji would never have wanted to be a burden unto his village. I consider him a consequence of battle, and shortly after his death, he was honored as one. He’s on the Stone.”

Sakura’s face mirrored her sensei’s, eyes closed in harsh acceptance. Opening them, she nodded. “He was very dedicated to his service. Did he have surviving family?”

“No. He was alone, which somehow makes it both better and worse.” She ran her fingers over her pigtails, something Sakura knew she only did when she was about to lose a lot of money or something wasn’t right and she couldn’t pin it. Knowing it was the latter, she brought her shishou back down to earth. “What happened, Shishou? How did it go so wrong?”

“Once Sunji was compromised, the nuke-nin, name of Nimke Tatsao, lesser known A-Class running a gang out of Earth Country, used Sunji’s position and information to compromise the records room and steal a few scrolls of powerful jutsu. Two S-class ninjutsu and an unclassified body preservation jutsu. We still have nothing but questions as to why they were stolen. The Nara’s have a few theories, the favorite right now being they were after the unclassified or possibly a different scroll altogether, and took the S-class ninjutsu for proof or spoil. They were Earth and Lightning based, so that makes it the most likely.”

Clearing her throat and taking a swig of the sake bottle that must have been from last night, she continued on, “This happened about six months before you went to Snow, when you were in Suna for that Kage escort. Kakashi and Naruto were available and being as Kakashi is back up to his ANBU standard, I didn’t think twice of sending them both, it’d been quiet. I wanted to go over it with you when you came back from jumpstarting their clinic, but the request from Snow came before we even had anything from them, so I didn’t think twice. They’re elite.”

The anger Sakura had for herself almost doubled. Straying from the village in the name of getting stronger finally caught up with her. Since making ANBU two years ago, she’d spent maybe three months total inside of the gates. And half of those were really on patrol. _God_ , the guilt just kept rising. If she had been inside the village, maybe it would have been _her_ with Kakashi. She didn’t have the Kyuubi, but ever since her promotion, Sakura and her ex-sensei had become a formidable team. They worked almost seamlessly once Kakashi realized she wasn’t the little girl she once had been. His face when she blew his mask right off of it was a priceless memory she hoped to never lose.

Snapping back to her shishou, she nodded at her to continue.

“So I sent them, they were in the valley between Earth and Wind, Kakashi was to treat the mission as ANBU and stay in the shadows to infiltrate, while Naruto was to be the main force behind the apprehension and execution. They were all rogues so we were hoping to have recompense by their bounties, but according to what we got out of Naruto when they returned, there are no bodies left. Between his own destruction and Kakashi’s katon use, its all gone. He brought back one headband he said belonged to Tatsao, but despite that, and Kakashi’s condition, they completed the mission. The scrolls have been authenticated and replaced, and we’re currently reviewing duty rosters for the Tower, we started with records. Established jonin only. No newbies, no special rank.

“From what Ino could get from Naruto, it went bad, and it went that way fast. These nukenin weren’t A-Rank like we believed. S-rank at best and their leader, I later found out from the Tsuchikage, was one of their elite that went rogue. Kakashi’s level, unclassed. Somehow, Tatsao used the body preservation jutsu on a live body. Kakashi’s live body. It isn’t supposed to be possible, which means it went wrong. That’s the only way they were able to get them both. When Kakashi disappeared into the forbidden scroll, Naruto lost it. Kakashi is the last battle mentor he has left. He lost his battle focus for a split second, and the numbers were just too much while being so low on chakra. Suppressants and a seal incapacitated him, and it took him a little while to reach the Kyuubi and overcome them.”

“Sakura…you were in Snow for ten months, the theft happened six before that. They left on the intel we had a month later. Naruto said that he and Kakashi were captured and separated two weeks after they left. Naruto was able to escape a couple of weeks later. Finally healed and left shelter two after that, was home after another four days.”

_Fuck._

“It took until three months ago for Naruto and his second team to find him, infiltrate the base he was held at, and bring him back.”

**_Fuck._ **

Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing the emotions back down her throat. She held it in as her thoughts frenzied. Realization settled in the pit of her stomach as the time hit her. Naruto escaped after two weeks. Kakashi was kept for fourteen and a half months. _One year and two months_ of torture, deprivation, and god knows what else happened to him. How many times were they healed, or left to heal painfully and naturally, only for the process to start over again? Sakura had her fair share of both torture endurance training and the real thing itself. She knew first hand exactly how awful and disgusting it can be for a shinobi physically, and mentally. Kakashi had been through this many times before, she’d read his file over once or twice, knowing full well that it was only his official jonin file, not Black Ops.

But Naruto…. _Oh Naruto, how have you been coping?_ To know that such atrocities were committed against someone as sunny and _good_ as Naruto made the tears threaten to come back again.

Sakura clenched her teeth, fists tightening at her sides, before she let the breath go and forced her taut muscles to relax. They’re home now. They’re home, they’re safe with us, safe with me, and we will not stop working until we fix Kakashi. We won’t. I won’t. I can’t fail.

“Shishou, the chakra. A fuinjutsu seal? The Fire Temple?”

Tsunade nodded her head slightly, understanding what she meant. “I’ll let you and Naruto hash out the finer details of their capture. We’ve been talking about seals, but none are compatible so far, at least not any that won’t make him completely disabled. The fact is, we’ve made absolutely no headway with Kakashi’s condition. None. Everyday it takes a massive amount of chakra just to keep the parasitic chakra at bay. When Shizune and I managed to force it back towards the optical nerves, the epicenter, but it stopped at the reticular activating system and we haven’t made any further progress with it. We also haven’t been able to get him to respond to anything but the most basic physical stimuli. With the blockage to the RAS, he will stay in the coma, until it can be removed. The chakra is emanating from his eyes, and although his sharingan is always activated since his original transplant, we have no idea if this concentration is deteriorating, blocking, or just sitting in his eyes. His natural eye is doing fine, I’m sure you saw. For the life of me, I honestly can’t figure it out. I’m going to lose one of my oldest and best shinobi because the men who did this _and_ the base they were on is completely wiped out and I’ve never seen **_anything_** like this before!”

By the time she finished, Tsunade was breathing heavily, almost at a shout. Sakura understood. She was angry, lethally so, at the mission, at the men, at herself, at Kakashi’s condition. At the stupid fucks who thought keeping such a jutsu was worth lives. The preservation of bodies has long been mastered. What made that jutsu so different?

“You said we have the scrolls back in possession?” Sakura began.

“Hai, they’re sealed again in the unclassified room on the records floor. Only myself, and Ibiki currently have access. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree. You and I can pour over it together in a few days after you catch up with Naruto and thoroughly examine Kakashi. I want you rested. This is your new mission. Fix my elite shinobi, Sakura. I have faith in my apprentice. Almost as much as I do myself.” Tsunade smirked up at Sakura and drained the rest of her sake.

Sakura gave a small, strained smile, and tensed. She knew what was coming next.

“NOW GET OUT!”

Sakura left behind a lone cherry blossom, floating to the ground just in time to miss the shattering of a sake bottle on the wall three feet behind her.


End file.
